THE Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat will see a seven-way tussle in the upcoming general election (GE15), with two independents in the fray.  

Barisan Nasional’s (BN) Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar starts as the favourite for this seat, and will be challenged by Pakatan Harapan (PH) Ramanan Ramakrishnan, Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Mohd Ghazali Md Hamin, Pejuang’s Mohd Akmal Mohd Yusoff, Parti Rakyat Malaysia’s (PRM) Ahmad Jufliz Faiza, and two independents Syed Abdul Razak Syed Long Alsagoff and Nurhaslinda Basri.  

The candidates were announced and confirmed by Sungai Buloh P107 Election Commission officer Jusni Jasim, who handled the nominations at the Petaling District Government Office Complex.  

The incumbent for this seat R. Sivarasa was dropped by PH on the grounds of ill-health.

In the 2018 General Elections, this seat witnessed a four-cornered fight, later won by PH.  

In the last election, the then incumbent R. Sivarasa won with a majority of 26,634 after polling 43,631 votes. BN’s Prakash Rao picked up 16,681 votes while Nuridah Mohd Salleh got 16,997 votes. PSM’s Zainurizzaman Moharam lost his deposit after polling 642 votes. 

All candidates are new to this constituency.  

Khairy, the caretaker health minister, was parachuted to Sungai Buloh after Umno’s deputy president Mohamad Hasan was fielded in the former’s Rembau seat. 

Besides Khairy and Syed Abdul Razak, the rest of the candidates are contesting for the very first time.  

PH’s candidate Ramanan Ramakrishnan, a former MIC politician, was chosen when incumbent R. Sivarasa was dropped. 

Ramanan only joined PKR in 2020 after the infamous “Sheraton Move”.  

Perikatan Nasional named PAS’s Mohd Ghazali as candidate for the Malay-majority seat while Pejuang named Mohd Akmal to represent them.  

Lawyer Ahmad Jufliz Faiza, representing PRM, said he decided to contest here specifically to take on Khairy, whom he claimed was the reason for some form of discrimination due to the Covid-19 vaccine policy.  

Of the two independent candidates, Syed Abdul Razak Syed Long Alsagoff quit as a Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra) member before deciding to contest at Sungai Buloh using the key logo.  

Syed Abdul Razak was also the former deputy speaker of Gerakan.  

In GE14, he contested the Bukit Lanjan state seat on a Gerakan ticket and lost by 40,233 votes to PKR’s Elizabeth Wong.  

Nurhaslinda Basri, a relatively unknown figure, also filed her nomination papers today at 9.37am. 

With a total of 158,090 registered voters, the Sungai Buloh parliamentary seat is considered one of the most anticipated constituencies. 

At least 67,383 people will be first-time voters after the voting age was lowered from 21 to 18 and automatic voter registration was implemented in September. – November 5, 2022.